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The recent discussion about Ron's 26k posts got me reflecting on my time as a member of the JCF.
I've been here for 7(?, maybe more) years now, since I was first researching the Jackson Fusion Plus I'd recently acquired. I had no idea what I'd just bought and was madly scouring the net for info on it. The JCF must've been about 30 strong at the time, and good ol' Greg Crowe helped me identify it. He had me measure the scale length, and was then able to confirm just what model I was playing. And so the journey began. Now we have nearly 10,000 registered members, with a high water mark of 306 of them online at one time! This place has become focal point of knowledge for Jackson & Charvels.
Since that beginning, we've watched Jeremy & the admins change servers, software, etc. a bunch of times in order to deal with the burgeoning membership. Much bitching ensues each time as folks come to terms with re-registering, new software, loss of familiarity & functionality, new layout & design.
I've got to know a little bit about a bunch of cool strangers from all over the globe, and consider many of you crazy Yanks, Brits, Swedes, Turks, Estonians, Kiwis, et al. friends, despiting having never met you.
We've watched our JCF brothers & sisters fall in love, fall apart, divorce, the births of their children, struggles with employment, illness & injury. Congratulations on new jobs, new bands, new homes, thousands of birthdays. We've watched a lot of them leave the JCF, some on less-than-amicable terms, some just fading out with time.
We've also lost some good'uns along the way, to car accidents & illness. RIP Stu & Donny. Who knows who else, who've just stopped posting, never to be heard from again.
I faded out myself for awhile as I went through some personal shit of my own. And then I return to find the support of my friends here, many of whom have been through the same shit themselves and were full of encouragement & support.
We've identified thousands of guitars, helped folks with thousands of enquiries about restringing Floyds, setting intonation, swapping tubes, the many virtues of lemon oil.
I've laughed long and hard at some of the most amazingly funny shit posted here. And then tried to explain the source of the laughter to my bewildered wife. For some reason, she now tunes out every time I start a sentence with "this guy on the JCF just said....." Hopefully, I've made a few folks laugh in return.
I've had a few memorable stoushes too, some which have gotten particularly ugly, although at the end of the day we seem to get beyond it and get back to laughing & joking around, despite our differences of opinion on religion, war, politics, nascar, Greek holiday destinations & American "candy bars"
This place has introduced me to more shithot music than I could poke a stick at. I'd say (without a hint of exaggeration) that my CD & DVD collections have increased at least 20-fold in my time here. Plus it's really cool that I can support members of the forum by buying their CDs (Coldworker, Under Eden, Prototype, etc) and feel that they FULLY deserve their place in the rack alongside the Megadeth, Nevermore, Savatage cds.
We've rallied together to see off dirtbags as the place was hammered by spammers & offloaders looking to pitch their "rare & desirable" instruments to the JCF like they were shooting fish in a barrel before hightailing it out of here. Of course, we'd all get to enjoy the super-creative profile-manipulation as a result.
I don't post as often as I used to (which is why I didn't crack "No Life" membership years ago), but I still check in every day to catch up on what everyone is up to. And I even still manage a couple of posts per day. I've joined many other forums over the years, often to fill in those slower periods on the JCF, only to come to the realisation that I'm unable to find the fellowship & sense of community that we have here anywhere else. I know other people have favourite forums elsewhere, and some who just haven't got along here, but for me, I haven't found a better fit anywhere else online.
So looking back and with all of that in mind, I raise my glass to all members of the JCF, past & present, to thank you all for the great time I've had here these last 7+ years. I consider you friends & kindred spirits (despite the fact that so many of you kick ass on guitar and I can still barely hold one & stay on my feet) and just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for all that my being part of the JCF Brethren continues to provide me.
best regards
Gary B, VitaminG. Professional Threadkiller
I've been here for 7(?, maybe more) years now, since I was first researching the Jackson Fusion Plus I'd recently acquired. I had no idea what I'd just bought and was madly scouring the net for info on it. The JCF must've been about 30 strong at the time, and good ol' Greg Crowe helped me identify it. He had me measure the scale length, and was then able to confirm just what model I was playing. And so the journey began. Now we have nearly 10,000 registered members, with a high water mark of 306 of them online at one time! This place has become focal point of knowledge for Jackson & Charvels.
Since that beginning, we've watched Jeremy & the admins change servers, software, etc. a bunch of times in order to deal with the burgeoning membership. Much bitching ensues each time as folks come to terms with re-registering, new software, loss of familiarity & functionality, new layout & design.
I've got to know a little bit about a bunch of cool strangers from all over the globe, and consider many of you crazy Yanks, Brits, Swedes, Turks, Estonians, Kiwis, et al. friends, despiting having never met you.
We've watched our JCF brothers & sisters fall in love, fall apart, divorce, the births of their children, struggles with employment, illness & injury. Congratulations on new jobs, new bands, new homes, thousands of birthdays. We've watched a lot of them leave the JCF, some on less-than-amicable terms, some just fading out with time.
We've also lost some good'uns along the way, to car accidents & illness. RIP Stu & Donny. Who knows who else, who've just stopped posting, never to be heard from again.
I faded out myself for awhile as I went through some personal shit of my own. And then I return to find the support of my friends here, many of whom have been through the same shit themselves and were full of encouragement & support.
We've identified thousands of guitars, helped folks with thousands of enquiries about restringing Floyds, setting intonation, swapping tubes, the many virtues of lemon oil.
I've laughed long and hard at some of the most amazingly funny shit posted here. And then tried to explain the source of the laughter to my bewildered wife. For some reason, she now tunes out every time I start a sentence with "this guy on the JCF just said....." Hopefully, I've made a few folks laugh in return.
I've had a few memorable stoushes too, some which have gotten particularly ugly, although at the end of the day we seem to get beyond it and get back to laughing & joking around, despite our differences of opinion on religion, war, politics, nascar, Greek holiday destinations & American "candy bars"
This place has introduced me to more shithot music than I could poke a stick at. I'd say (without a hint of exaggeration) that my CD & DVD collections have increased at least 20-fold in my time here. Plus it's really cool that I can support members of the forum by buying their CDs (Coldworker, Under Eden, Prototype, etc) and feel that they FULLY deserve their place in the rack alongside the Megadeth, Nevermore, Savatage cds.
We've rallied together to see off dirtbags as the place was hammered by spammers & offloaders looking to pitch their "rare & desirable" instruments to the JCF like they were shooting fish in a barrel before hightailing it out of here. Of course, we'd all get to enjoy the super-creative profile-manipulation as a result.
I don't post as often as I used to (which is why I didn't crack "No Life" membership years ago), but I still check in every day to catch up on what everyone is up to. And I even still manage a couple of posts per day. I've joined many other forums over the years, often to fill in those slower periods on the JCF, only to come to the realisation that I'm unable to find the fellowship & sense of community that we have here anywhere else. I know other people have favourite forums elsewhere, and some who just haven't got along here, but for me, I haven't found a better fit anywhere else online.
So looking back and with all of that in mind, I raise my glass to all members of the JCF, past & present, to thank you all for the great time I've had here these last 7+ years. I consider you friends & kindred spirits (despite the fact that so many of you kick ass on guitar and I can still barely hold one & stay on my feet) and just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for all that my being part of the JCF Brethren continues to provide me.
best regards
Gary B, VitaminG. Professional Threadkiller
Great forum.
" then I start trying to tell them how an incredible place the JCF is and why I'm talking about it all the time, now if I ever really need to do that I'm going to make them read your post! That tells a lot bro!
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